6 months on - Bella's raw diet

[clairep4]

It's now 6 months since I started feeding Bella on a raw diet, so I just thought I'd do another quick update as I know there are a few people who've recently gone down this road as well.

Last time I posted about this was at the 4 month stage where she was doing great apart from the anal glands which were still really playing up. I adjusted her diet a bit, increased the bone content to 20% and added bran, and they are much, much improved - still need emptying occasionally if she's had soft poos after scavanging KFC leftovers, but overall the result is great. I'd got to the point where I was even considering having them removed because they were so bad (they needed weekly emptying and she was scooting all the time) so I'm very relieved and obviously it's much more comfortable for her. 

She's also still not had a single ear or eye infection since the switch to raw (we were having these every month as well on the kibble diet).

In case anyone's interested in switching, this is her weekly menu:

Monday breakfast - 90g chicken (minced bone, whole pieces of chicken, a bit of pulped veg, garlic and bran)
Monday dinner - 40g lean beef mince with some raw veg to bulk it out

Tuesday breakfast - 130g piece of breast of lamb or pork ribs
Tuesday dinner - 40g lean beef mince and raw veg

Wednesday breakfast - 90g chicken
Wednesday dinner - 60g kidney and liver and a handful of holistic biscuits

Thurs breakfast - 130g piece of breast of lamb or pork ribs
Thurs dinner - 40g beef mince

Friday breakfast - 90g chicken
Friday dinner - 40g beef mince

Sat breakfast - tin of sardines, an egg, yoghurt, handful of holistic biscuits
Sat dinner - 50g tripe

Sun breakfast - 100g rabbit (the frozen blocks from pets at home)
Sun dinner - usually a bit of leftovers from our roast - meat, veg and gravy.

She also gets a marrowbone for recreation/tooth cleaning over the weekend. I give her evening primrose oil every other day and salmon oil on the other days, and when I remember, Dorwest's Keeper's Mix. I aim to give her roughly 2% of her bodyweight per day (she's just over 9kg) so what isn't in the weights above is made up for in kongs and treats.

Bella loves the food (her bowl is usually empty in about 5 seconds flat) and is looking great on it, nice and trim, beautifully glossy coat, clean ears and teeth, I'd recommend it to anyone. 

[Nicola]

It sounds great.. I'm toying with the idea of moving Alfie onto BARF, he's 4 months now so any tips on moving him across? Does his age have any impact on what he can/can't have? ...big bones are probably not a good idea for puppy teeth??

Any advice/tips would be great 

[flozac]

I am about 6-7 weeks into giving my dogs a raw diet and i have to say they are doing fab on it. Zac has lost some weight which is what i wanted and Floss has gained weight again what I wanted . Their coats are mory glossy, they poo much less and it is soo much easier to clean up as it is fimer. They love the food and the variety and they are very happy. i have to hunt around abit to get boney bits of meat but out village butcher does a great line of chicken legs, very very cheap.

I also wouuld recccomend it.

[clairep4]

Nicola, I'd do lots of reading up on it before making the switch - there are a few books out there, look for Tom Lonsdale, Dr Billinghurst, Kymythy Schulze are some authors I can think of. There's also a good email list on Yahoo called Britbarf which I found really helpful as you can really get into the nitty gritty of it and there are lots of people out there who have alot of experience and are willing to share it to help you through the first few months.

I found it really scary at the start, I'm a big worrier when it comes to Bella (basically cos sooo many things seemed to go wrong for her in her first year) so I was absolutely paranoid about splinters of bone and things like that. The good thing is you can really tailor the diet to suit your particular dog.

A few people on here have lots of experience of raw feeding and helped me alot at the start. There are also different theories on what dogs need to eat, some add veg and cereals, some don't add any at all, and ratios of offal to meat to bone vary a fair bit as well, so in the end it comes down to a bit of trial and error working out what your dog needs.

Bella was about 10 months when she started on raw so was fully grown in terms of bone structure etc - I know with pups you have to be quite careful about the amount of bone they eat because of levels of calcium - this has been discussed on Britbarf a fair bit recently.

Good luck if you decide to go for it!

[Nicola]

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitely start doing some proper reading on it 

[Penel]

I think you can get awfully bogged down in % and weights of foods - the longer you feed raw, the more relaxed you get about it - if mine get a bit thin, I feed them more, if they get a bit podgy, I feed them less !  I feed veggies if I remember, and not that many supplements.  Just remember they are dogs, and are extremely adaptable - they could (and some often do)  live from eating out of a bin !!!!!

[bluegirl]

Having just had Penny come through a pregnancy on raw, she looks very well and is producing more than enough milk to keep all 9 pups very happy. Even the stud dog owner, who came to see the pups commented on how well mother and pups looked from the diet. I am now preparing to raise the pups on raw and am actively encouraging potential owners to consider the same.

[Penel]

Fabulous well done !  I met a dachs puppy the other day who was weaned on raw, (Pat from Britbarf bred him) and he just looked stunning.

[miche]

Mikey and Herbie I say are fed on BARF but I'm not that strict on it.  Like Penel, I feed veg now and then and I have got used to their amounts without weighing, they are both doing really really well and as yet I have not felt the need to use a supplement.

The things that stand out for me are that they are very calm and content, their skin and coats are in really good condition but mostly I love watching them eat their meals they really really enjoy their food now. 

[kb]

Does feeding dogs on raw food not increase the risk of salmonella and all other kinds of nasty gastric bugs?

[miche]

Does feeding dogs on raw food not increase the risk of salmonella and all other kinds of nasty gastric bugs?

It's not something that worries me tbh, I do know it's not a huge risk but I don't know the reasons why, Penel or Silkstocking might be able to help as they have been feeding raw for a long time.